Staff and Trustees at the summer Strategy Day.
John Parker, CEO
Enclosed with the issue 195 of the ARB Magazine was a copy of a very exciting document indeed - the Arboricultural Association Strategic Plan 2022-24.
This publication sets out the strategic priorities of the Association for the next three-year cycle and aims to give a flavour of who we are, what we do and why we do it. The hope is that when someone next asks what the Association is all about, we will be able to give them a copy of this document and it will provide them with a comprehensive introduction.
The Strategic Plan was written as a collaborative effort by the Association's Trustees and staff team. At the end of July 2021 we all met up in Stonehouse and spent the day discussing what we saw as the priorities for the organisation, coming up with some great ideas and developing them as a team until we had the key elements in place. We then spent a few weeks refining the content, taking into account further feedback from staff, Trustees and representatives from the membership, including the various Committee, working party and Branch chairs. The final version was formally approved by the Board in mid - October.
At the heart of the Strategic Plan is the Association's new vision:
Inspiring, supporting and promoting the tree care community for a society that better appreciates and cares for trees.
Arboricultural professionals are, and will always be, at the heart of what we do, and a key part of our mission is to represent those working in all areas of professional arboriculture, at all stages of their career. In addition to this we will continue to do more to engage the whole tree care community, including those who don't actually work in our profession. Everyone has a role to play.
Delivery
The Strategic Plan 2022-24 describes the ‘what’ and the ‘why’, but it does not go into detail about the ‘how.’ The Association’s staff team and Trustees have produced an Operational Action Plan which sits behind the Strategic Plan and which sets out how our ambitious new vision will actually be delivered. It is the next level of detail to the Strategy, providing a crucial link between the overarching vision of the Association and the day-to-day activities of the staff team and volunteers. The Operational Action Plan is an internal and unpublished document, but if you would like to find out more then please contact the Association.
Want to get involved?
We hope that you like the Strategic Plan and that it inspires you to get involved. The Association simply cannot deliver everything we need to deliver through our staff team alone (brilliant though they are!). We are lucky to have an amazing group of volunteers spread all over the country: our Trustees, Committee and work ing party members, Branch teams and many, many more. If you would like to become more involved in the work of the Association and help us deliver our strategic objectives then please get in touch. We would love to hear from you.